Highlights:
- After reports of buried waste rising to surface and a malfunctioning methane system, the Environmental Protection Agency is calling for a study on the health of the Lees Lane landfill in Kentucky. The landfill was onces on the EPA's Superfund list but was removed in the 1980s after a partial cleanup.
- Desired study would look at air quality, potential groundwater and soil contamination, and the systems in place to monitor the landfill
- The Metropolitan Sewer District, which maintains the landfill, says new methane monitoring wells installed in 2010 show no signs of elevated levels
From the article:
With reports of once-buried waste making its way to the surface, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is calling for a new study of health and safety concerns near a Louisville landfill that once was on the nation’s Superfund list of most toxic places.
The EPA took the 112-acre Lees Lane landfill — tucked between the Riverside Gardens community and the Ohio River in western Louisville — off its Superfund list after a partial cleanup in the 1980s that it deemed sufficient to protect public health.
But with the new reports of waste cited in routine monitoring, a methane-gas collection system that hasn’t worked properly for years, continued health fears raised by landfill neighbors, and largely open access to the public, EPA officials have decided a new review is needed.
They have also called a public meeting for July 19, following up on one last fall organized by Arnita Gadson, executive director of the Kentucky Environmental Quality Commission.
“I do believe in my heart and soul that people have been terribly affected by that landfill out there,” said Gadson, who has followed Lees Lane issues since she was executive director of the West Jefferson County Community Task Force, a group that oversaw a toxic air monitoring study in Louisville.
